This Is Serenity

Something I never realized is that each day I greet the dawn of my day with serenity. Thanks goes out to our parish pastor for pointing out what this normal every day event means in my lifetime.

When I rise out of slumber, I fill my cup of coffee and take it out on the deck. Every morning I reflect on the moon and it's stages as I open my day with my prayers to an all wise God.

Summer and Winter, I Sit in my chair that my son bought me one Mother's Day and I continue through my morning novenas to saints that have special meaning to me. It's my time to ask for their help with my understanding and the gift of my religious faith, hope and charity.

In years past, I had my trusty dog, Tipper, at my side and I stood and watched her go about her morning toiletries as I thanked God for another day and plead for his intercession in my activities as I shared in the gifts he had presented me.

So much has changed in my life, my youngest son and oldest step-daughter have left this world and I lamented on those losses. In 2017 my oldest son died from MDS which was explained to us as a pre-leukemia. I wasn't ready for his passing as we spent day after day in the hospital with him. He said to me, "If this is the best it's going to be, let me go."

They say if you see a cardinal it is a loved one visiting from above. My oldest son who lived with me was taken home over the Easter season. Just before his passing I saw a pair of the most brilliantly colored cardinals. I miss my son dearly but know that he was a true volunteer in this world and suffered enough in life to deserve the peaceful passing that was his just in time for when Christ opened the gates of heaven at Easter.

God never closes a door that he doesn't open a window. I lost one of my jobs right after Bill passed on during Lent but was called to work at a local flower shop in time for Mother's Day. I am ever grateful that God does not abandon us but continues to send blessings our way.

Therefore, I continue to thank God for his many gifts of my surviving children, grandchildren and a home with food to eat. Finally I implore his gifts of courage to change things that need to be changed, serenity to accept the things I can't change and the wisdom to know the difference.

Finally, as morning breaks over my new day, I sit and just talk to an all wise Savior and commend to him my inner most feelings. Since I suffered those tragic deaths in my family, I have been taken up with the final serenity of knowing that this is something that was God's Will and something that I could have asked him to reverse. Being of faith, I also knew it was not my place to ask for their return as in Lazarus and it was something that I needed to accept.

God is Great! God is Good. He is so good that he answers my prayers as I sit there in the solitude of the closing of the night and the opening of the day with normal everyday happenings. A bird sings out it's morning song. The wind tumbles through a neighbor's wind chimes. I have my signs from God that he is listening and THIS IS SERENITY.